


Not too different

by AtmaWriting



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:54:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21797932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AtmaWriting/pseuds/AtmaWriting
Summary: The Warrior of Light was never really that different from Ardbert, it was all a matter of speaking to realize that. When they've awoken to the realization that they're to become Lightwardens unless an answer is found, they take a moment to seek solace. Only to find a single moment of respite, to hear old tales of a midlander and his trusty Amaro from years of eld, and compare it to their own hijinks and habits.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6
Collections: Final Fantasy XIV Gift Exchange (2019)





	Not too different

**Author's Note:**

  * For [malachibi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/malachibi/gifts).



> This was a completely new field for me, since I'm rusty as all heck after having almost nothing to write about for months other than stale scenes. Hope you like it! Everything really just came along as I kept writing some more.

Never had he expected that he would be sharing a place with the one that he once had considered an obstacle between his goal of saving his own homeland. And now? This time he was just sitting there in silence, not knowing if his presence was the best to choose from the many worried looks his companion would get if they were to venture around the Crystanium once more. 

“Tell me, was Seto always that calm when they were with you?” The sudden question took the midlander off guard. The former warrior of darkness being asked something so mundane from the current one, though to be honest, he wouldn’t even dare call himself anything but a shade. 

“Now where did that come from? Did the possibility of suddenly taking on the offer from the Pixies take your fancy over becoming some strange distorted Lightwarden?” Ardbert said, though he knew well that his reply was far from being humorous at that moment. “Not that it would matter really, either choice means an existence long enough to last an eternity if nothing changes.” He glanced down at the scenery before them. “I don’t know about you, but I find the thought of that to be too much, even for my own standards of having lasted this long that is…” Such words did not earn him an answer at all.

He knew there was much to think, an overwhelming current of emotions and ideas as the Warrior of Light and Darkness sat beside him atop that long structure, overlooking both Lakeland and the Crystanium. Of course the man understood their pain well, to have worked so hard, gotten so far, only to be thrown into a spiral in which they would eventually play the part of a villain. Yet there was something deeper than that thought, Ardbert couldn't tell exactly what it was, but it felt as if he could directly feel what the warrior before him felt as if it was his own pain. He quickly brushed away any thoughts about it, there was no way that could happen, he was just tired, strange ghosts of the past could be like that right? Or perhaps he had merely spent too much time mingling around someone else's business, that had to be it. 

Regardless, there was no denying of how he felt at that moment for the poor individual before him. Becoming the new king of the faeries did not sound so bad all of a sudden. With an awkward sigh and shifting of his crossed arms, he shook his head in defeat. 

"Seto was never that calm. He was actually an extremely rambunctious Amaro. Bit me on the arm and all when he was still being raised by my brother." He admitted as he scratched the back of his head some, earning himself an arched brow from the Warrior of Light. He had succeeded in helping with keeping their mind busy if not curious.

His companion didn't speak much, but rather gave him another glance, like a child waiting for their storyteller to tell them what happened next. He understood quite easily despite the lack of word exchange.

"I had a brother in Kholusia so many years ago. The madman wanted to be an Amaro handler rather than a chocobo one. Thus he brought in Seto when he was still in his egg." He mustered the briefest of smiles before the Warrior of Light could make any notes of it. "Of course, that meant that he grew up in the company of my brother rather than me. I was never one to really worry for pets or in this case, a mount. But then he gave Seto to me as a present of sorts once I set out to become an adventurer 'Take him with you! He'll watch over you just fine, he grew up seeing you every now and then.' He said." Ardbert snickered a bit. "What a lie that was, he bit me the first time I tried riding him, and then abandoned me at any moment that he could when I was traveling. It took him an entire cycle of watching me suffer from his antics until he finally started growing a heart for me.” the midlander paused briefly as he once smiled, this time long enough to cause his companion to lean forward with more curiosity. “And what a heart it was. I’m not sure if it was the logic that got right onto his head finally. About how adventurers can live one day, and just be gone the next. But suddenly he’d started to nudge me when I fed him, you’d imagine the expressions everyone gave me at how careful I was, always telling them that I did all of that for a reason, to not get my hands bitten off.”

Suddenly small chuckles came from the warrior beside him. “Sounds like a handful. Almost like my own chocobo… I thought we’d get along so well on that day I got it after much hard work, and then it flew off at the first sight of danger.” they admitted as they turned towards Ardbert to look at him. “It was heartbreak at first… sight I guess? But at least I learned one good thing about it. The little shite could fly.” they chuckled some more. “It was just a matter of time of how we could bond enough for them to let me ride them into the sky.” 

This answer, brought a sense of camaraderie to the shade beside them. “Well, I’m glad to know at least I wasn’t the only one with trouble with their so called ‘partner in crime’. Be Amaro or Chocobo, either beak can pack a really mean bite-” a realization suddenly hit Ardbert in this conversation that could be branded as a lone Warrior of Darkness having lost their sanity whilst speaking with themselves. “Is that why you always keep your gauntlets even when there’s food involved?...” Ardbert asked in disbelief, suddenly remembering how he had watched in horror an individual almost swallowing sandwiches whilst still wearing heavy leather gauntlets and armor over them. 

“I mean.. Don’t you do it as well?” they answered with a smirk all over their face, oh they knew.. There was no way that the secret could be kept despite the many moons of enduring mocking from his friends to finally bury it deep in his past. 

“No.” said the warrior from the First with the most serious expression that he could force. He would never admit it. That deep habit engraved in his own being each time the dreaded time to feed Seto had caused more than enough laughing stocks once he’d started to share more time with others. He wouldn’t let it happen. Never again would he admit the lengths he went to in order to not be the ‘green boy’ like Renda-Rae had started to call him followed by the rest soon after. “C-come on.. Surely you wanted to know more about Seto than myself. There’s really not much else to tell. But if you want to know more about him, I have a million more stories to tell! Like the time that he would try to bite my hand off if I tried to take off his medal to wipe the mud off of it. Or when he dragged my bag to the edge of a lake when I was looking away.” the man said completely flustered, his desperate attempts to change the topic failing as his newfound sibling in arms simply kept giving them that one smile that told him that his dark secret was out. There was no escaping it.

Ardbert merely sighed as he shook his head. A hand soon being brought to his face as he did not dare to keep looking at his company. “I don’t know whether to be glad that no one can see me or that it’s only you that knows about this anymore….” 

On one end, the conversation perhaps couldn’t have been farther than meaningless, but on another, it brought two people closer. It helped ease the weight of guilt on the Warrior of Light’s mind about their current state. It made them smile even if for a brief moment, before they gathered their belongings and set about to get down from their scenic viewpoint, ready to embark on what could be their last journey. Yet deep inside, they couldn’t help but remember the few bits of antics that they’d just discussed, of how unforgettable Seto must have been, and make them wonder if their chocobo left back at the source would someday perhaps think the same way like the black Amaro they had met in Wolkendorf did about their former master.


End file.
